1. Industrial Field of the Invention
The preset invention relates to a sheet-like workpiece delivering apparatus which supplies a sheet-like workpiece to a machine tool such as a laser beam machine, for punching, drilling, notching, grinding and polishing or cutting of the workpiece, or which takes out the finished workpiece from the machine tool.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When a sheet-like workpiece (which will be hereinafter referred to as a workpiece) of an iron steel plate is, for example, cut with a laser beam machine, conventionally the iron steel plate is held by a lifting device, which includes suction disks or magnets, so as to be delivered to or taken out of a work table of the laser beam machine. The terms "delivered to or taken out of" may be replaced with "transferred to or from" in this specification. In the conventional art, when the workpiece cannot be hanged by the suction-disk lifting device because of the shape of the workpiece (holes or unevenness), or when the lifting device with magnets cannot be used because of the material of the workpiece (stainless steel, aluminum, plastics and so on), the workpiece must be transferred to or from the work table manually by a worker.